Q. Which of the following issues are the 3 most important for the Federal Government to address over the next 12 months?
| Total | Vote Labor | Vote Lib/Nat | Vote Greens | Vote Other | Working class | Middle class | Aug 2016 | Change | ||||
| Improving our health system | 44% | 49% | 41% | 39% | 39% | 41% | 44% | 45% | -1 | |||
| Housing affordability | 31% | 36% | 22% | 36% | 33% | 35% | 27% | 31% | – | |||
| Reducing unemployment | 31% | 32% | 31% | 23% | 34% | 34% | 30% | 31% | – | |||
| National security and terrorism | 30% | 20% | 41% | 11% | 39% | 32% | 29% | 37% | -7 | |||
| Tax avoidance by big companies | 26% | 28% | 21% | 28% | 29% | 29% | 24% | 31% | -5 | |||
| Reducing the budget deficit | 24% | 16% | 36% | 7% | 27% | 23% | 28% | 30% | -6 | |||
| Protecting our borders | 21% | 12% | 27% | 7% | 33% | 18% | 23% | |||||
| Protecting workers wages and conditions | 20% | 30% | 14% | 16% | 15% | 22% | 18% | 18% | +2 | |||
| More funds for education | 17% | 17% | 16% | 22% | 13% | 16% | 18% | 20% | -3 | |||
| Addressing climate change | 16% | 28% | 7% | 48% | 9% | 18% | 15% | 18% | -2 | |||
| Protecting the environment | 16% | 19% | 10% | 49% | 10% | 12% | 18% | 14% | +2 | |||
| Investing in public transport | 12% | 12% | 14% | 8% | 9% | 9% | 12% | 14% | -2 | |||
| Investing in roads | 7% | 6% | 9% | 2% | 9% | 8% | 8% | 7% | – | |||
| Free trade agreements | 6% | 5% | 9% | 3% | 3% | 4% | 7% | 5% | +1 |
The most important issues for the Federal Government to address over the next 12 months were improving our health system (44%), housing affordability (31%). reducing unemployment (31%) and national security and terrorism (30%).
For Labor voters the most important issues were improving our health system (49%), housing affordability (36%), reducing unemployment (32%) and protecting workers wages and conditions (30%).
For Liberal/National voters the most important issues were improving our health system (41%), national security and terrorism (41%) and reducing the budget deficit (36%)
For Greens voters the most important issues were protecting the environment (49%), addressing climate change (48%) and improving our health system (39%).
Since this question was asked in August, there have been decreases for national security and terrorism (down 7%), reducing the budget deficit (down 6%) and tax avoidance by big companies (down 5%). Note that an additional issue has been included in this question, which has the effect of reducing the scores across the other items.